Perlman playing Mozart

Okay, is it me, or is Perlman absolutely terrible and playing Mozart? I heard a recording of the 3rd Concerto... it was plain, lacking style and texture. It was far too straightforward; it wasn't like and airy, like Mozart should be. Perlman does Romantic concertos very well; I love his Mendellsohn. However, I want to know if there are other people who agree with me that Perlman is *not* the ideal performer of Mozart.

However, has anyone heard of Altenberger (not sure of spelling)? I have a recording of him playing the Mozarts concertos... very, very well done.

For me, it's Perlman too. I think there's a crowd of that generation's musicians with Harvard Importance Disease trying to mutate music into something socially responsible. Harvard always asks you to look to the concept rather than the career, but the concept, in those days, was Leonard Bernstein. They infected New York.

(wear latex earplugs)

I also cannot stand how Perlman, and many other modern violinists, play Mozart. They either play it in a condescending manner ('gee, this isn't as hard as the Brahms, is it?' or sugar it up with too much cloying vibrato (as Perlman does).

The recordings by Christian Altenberger and the Deutsche Bachsolisten are excellent; fast and wiry, not prettified. And a bargain on LaserLight.

My favorite recordings of the violin concerti, however, are the HIP ones by Monica Hugget and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on Virgin; her version of the Sinfonia Concertante with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, also on Virgin, is among my favorite recordings of anything. I own two copies, one for home, and one for work.

Tom Wood

If, as I suspect, the conductor was James Levine, he deserves a substantial portion of the blame.

eusebius7 occasional contributor to the Davidsbuendler site: